Thursday, April 1, 2010

Gala Parfait: Downtown LA's Piñata District

Sometimes the perfect party just isn't complete without some good ol' fashioned piñata action. Thanks to Mary and losanjealous, I know exactly where to go in LA to get the cream of the crop for a fraction of the price -- And shocker, there's a whole district downtown for it!

Congregating near the intersection of Olympic and Central, a flurry of crepe paper and taco stand smoke make clear the destination. We parked on 10th and passed rows of closed warehouses before being greeted by the hugest, most colorful party warehouse store I've ever seen.

Piñatas aside, endless rows of affordable catering supplies filled a majority of the room; tamale cookers, table-top burners, clay serving bowls, agua fresca dispensers, pastel plastic tongs... It took everything in me not to buy IT ALL. Above, rows of paper ponies and princesses hung, fixed grins begging to be taken home and beaten! But boy, SO many choices!!! It was overwhelming. Mermaids, beach balls, beer cans, luchadores... And we hadn't even reached the main drag yet.

Once on Olympic, billowing street food steam, dense crowds, fruit stands and more aggressive piñata salespeople pitched the insanity level to high. Next to some pretty jellies and a pupusa dealer, a man sat with plastic aquariums of tiny turtles, cages of canaries and baby bunnies for sale (yikes!). Dwarf pineapples, prickly pear cactus pads, nuts of all varieties, and tropical fruits fronted the cramped open air storefronts. Jumbo bags of wrapped candies, cotton candy and popcorn lined the aisles inside, ceilinged with even more creative/exotic piñatas (turtles, scary sharks, giant flowers, lady bugs, the Hulk). The glee on our faces was palpable. CHOICES!

We finallly made our selection (a GORGEOUS sprinkled cupcake with sculptural strawberry on top).. for $12! I of course had to also get a bag of colorful mini ice cream cones filled with Peep-like color-sugared marshmallows (so good, so bad).
Already excited to go back, I also no longer have an excuse to put off throwing my epic tamale party...

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De Moi

Raised in the Southwest on Sonoran Mexican food and coming of age working in the dining rooms of some of the Slow Food Movement's finest Northwest institutions, this [now] Angeleno has some sharp opinions about how food is supposed to be done. With a fast-paced lifestyle in the City of Angels and a thirst for finer spirits, this is his LA hedonistic cosmopolitan food culture.
J'adore la bouffe!

What language(s) am I bastardizing??

A mix of French gastronomy slang and Polari, a form of cant slang dating back to the 19th century, revived in the 1950s by British gay subculture, more contemporarily referenced regularly by Morrissey.